


I was always here (But you forgot me)

by GaoLiXia



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), F/M, Fix-It, Jealous Peter Parker, M/M, Permanent Injury, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker Whump, Peter Parker is a Mess, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Lives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:53:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29543352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GaoLiXia/pseuds/GaoLiXia
Summary: Tony snaps but survives.Peter has to deal with the mess of the aftermath of the battle, while everyone seems to have forgotten the real reason why time travel was invented in first place: him.or:Just another fanfic where Peter is a cutie and is hurt and everyone is too blind to see it, except one. (Who? Read and find out!)
Relationships: Cooper Barton & Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 104





	1. Prologue

Everything happened in a haze.

First, they were on Titan, fighting for their lives… losing.

Then… _Becoming_ _ash_.

And in hindsight Peter realized that while watching the others disappear, it seemed painless, an almost nice way to die. But of course, he was wrong. Or maybe he was the exception?

He blamed his Parker luck. Or his spider-powers. Or maybe both.

 _He felt everything_.

Every particle, every molecule of his body was fighting to stay together while an external power was trying to rip him apart. At first, he felt it in his stomach. That tingle that had become so familiar since the bite. The one that told him something was wrong but without a direction.

“Mr. Stark?” he staggered backwards, his legs starting to give out due to the overwhelming sensations and conflicting messages his body was telling him.

“I don’t feel so good”.

Understatement of the century. It _hurt_. Hurthurthurthurthurt.

Tony tuned around, his face pale, eyes wide with panic but his voice was strangely calm “You’re alright”.

“I-I don’t know what’s happening. I-I d-don’t-”

He felt his legs disappear under him. He fell forward, but Tony was there to catch him. Peter clung to him with all of his remaining strength, desperate to hold on to something. He could hear, feel, and _taste_ everything.

“I don’t wanna go. I don’t wanna go… Mr.Stark” he chocked, the taste of ash was starting to get overwhelming. He wanted to throw up.

“Pleasepleaseplease. I don’t wanna go. I don’t wanna go.”

When his arms started to disappear too, he fell, but didn’t hit the ground. Tony was cradling his head, and watching with increasing horror as his protégé was disappearing under his own fingers.

Peter was choking. He couldn’t breathe. It was worse than the time he drowned. Worse than the time he was crushed by a building. Worse than the time he could not breathe due to lack of oxygen in space. He felt his lungs collapse the ash- no his own body was disintegrating. It was not just _ash_. It was him.

He looked in the pale face of his mentor and suddenly remembered the words that had made him feel so guilty just the year before.

_And if you died… I feel like that’s on me._

_I don’t need that on my conscience._

“I’m sorry”.

And just like that Peter Parker was gone.

Ash in the wind on a planet far, far, far away from home.

* * *

5 YEARS LATER

"I am inevitable".

Snap-

Nothing.

"And I... am... Iron Man"

**Snap**.


	2. Just one more

When Tony snapped, something snapped inside Peter’s chest too. Something deep and well hidden. He knew what it was, he had felt it before, but he refused to acknowledge it at that moment.

Everything was blurry and his body, that was hurting so much from injuries of the battle, suddenly felt numb.

He could not feel anything.

He could not see anything other than Tony, collapsing. Half of his body burnt.

He could not hear anything other than Tony’s heartbeat, struggling to pump just one more time.

 _Just one more_.

Peter was there in a second. He didn’t even realize he was crying until he tried to tell something to his mentor. Anything to help him.

“We won Mr. Stark” was the only thing he could think of.

 _Just one more_.

And then he was rambling, he didn’t even know what he was sobbing. He was a mess, but even when the others got there he could not find the strength to leave Tony’s side. He wanted to support him just like he had been supported while turning into ash.

 _Just one more_.

Hands were forcefully taking away from Tony and for a moment he fought them, but then he saw it was Pepper Potts, still in her boy armour, her eyes fixed only on her husband as she made Peter get up. Being driven away from his mentor was as hard as pulling a limb away from his body, but he knew it was not his place. He was not his family.

Despite his enhanced hearing, he didn’t hear what Pepper was saying at first, he was too focused on Tony’s heartbeat, that was starting to weaken.

 _Just one more_.

 _Please_.

_Just one more._

“You can rest now”.

 _No no no… nonononononono_.

Pepper words felt like a death sentence. They snapped him out of his haze, they could not give up! They were superheroes! There was something that could be done!

Then he heard it. Or more like, not-heard it.

The heartbeat he was focusing on so much had finally stopped.

_Just one more._

He let out a loud sob and looked frantically around him. Why was nobody trying? Why were they giving up?

His voice came out before his brain could even form a sentence “Please”.

He looked around, Thor and Colonel Rhodes being the ones nearer “Please do something”.

They looked at him with pained eyes, Colonel Rhodes shook his head and gripped Peter’s shoulder, he looked briefly towards his best friend and then again looked at the boy with sad eyes “It’s too late”.

“NO!” Peter shook away his hand and turned towards Thor “You’re a God. Please, there must be something you can do” he sobbed.

Thor looked like he was about to say the same things as Colonel Rhodes, until his eyes widened a fraction and said, “I can try something, but I’m not sure it will work.”

“Anything. Please- save him”.

_Just one more._

Thor and Peter quicky kneeled beside Tony, Pepper raised her head and looked confusedly at them.

“Please let him try just once.” Peter pleaded, tears running down his face.

Pepper closed her eyes and nodded.

Thor then proceeded to clink his hammer against Tony’s suit, sparkles of electricity surrounding his chest.

Nothing visible happened, so the adults round him shook their heads and tried to take Peter away but he had heard it.

_Just one more._

A heartbeat was there. Very weak but it was there. He gasped and struggled against Colonel Rhodes arms “Medic!” Peter shouted frantically.

Everyone was watching him like he was crazy “I swear I hear it. His heart is beating.” He said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Pepper was the quickest to react “FRIDAY. Vitals report.”

“Heartbeat detected. The heart rate is very low. Medical assistance is required.”

_Just one more._

Everything that happened after that was blurry and loud. Too loud for Peter’s sensitive ears that were straining to hear his mentor’s heartbeat. Soon they called for Dr. Strange, who did again his sparkling magic to open a portal and take Tony away to get medical assistance. Pepper and Colonel Rhodes following right after without hesitation.

The rest of them that remained on the battleground reassembled and were shipped on a Jet to Wakanda, Peter with them.

On the jet Peter tried to isolate the noises he heard by focusing on a stain on the ground. His spider senses were going haywire. His hands were trembling. His suit was ruined beyond repair and there was blood. So much blood. And he didn’t even know if it was all his.

_Was Mr. Stark going to make it? Where had they taken him?_

He struggled to remember that faint sound. That weak heartbeat. It was beating when he was there.

_Just one more._

_What if it stopped and he wasn’t there?_

_Just one more._

He jumped when a hand landed on his shoulder and looked up, eyes wide, as he saw Thor with a concerned expression looking at him “Are you injured, child?”.

“I-I don’t know.” He stuttered, looking again at his hands, the only part of his body completely exposed from his suit. They were covered in blood and grime, he could not see how the skin was.

“Do you feel pain?”

“N-no. Mr. Thor, sir. I-I can’t feel pain, but I feel strange.” He babbled.

Thor hummed and got up to talk with someone, Peter returned to look at the stain on the ground, trying to find again his focus, but soon the God was returning, with Sam Wilson in tow.

“What’s your name, kid?”

“P-Peter”

“You were snapped right? I was snapped too.”

Peter nodded, but he could not talk anymore. His shaking was getting worse. Everything was too bright, too loud, too everything.

“-hospital”

“-think he’s in shock”

“-injured?”

After a while he gave up trying to make sense of the noises surrounding him and he let himself go into the cold and welcoming darkness.

_Just one more._


	3. Awake

As cliché as it is, it was the beeping sound of a machine that woke Peter up. He struggled to open his eyes and regretted it instantly because the light in the room was so bright his eyes watered. He groaned and closed them again. He tried to detect any noises other than the annoying one made by the machine behind him, but strangely he could not hear anything.

 _Strange_.

Usually hospitals gave him nausea and big headaches due to all the input of noises, smells and general chaos that usually reigned, especially in the ER. He hated them before the bite (he went often due to his asthma attacks) and after the bite he avoided them like the plague. The only exception had been when his uncle Ben was killed, but even then, it was just a short visit before being shipped off to the police station.

But the hospital he was now in, was so _quiet_ it was concerning.

_Where was he?_

He decided to make another try at opening his eyes. He needed to assess the situation.

Peter groaned and slowly squinted his eyes, then waited a few minutes for them to adjust before trying to open them more. When he finally succeeded, he was startled by how much light was in his room without there being even a window. He tried to move, to look around, and found that surprisingly he wasn’t attached to any line or machinery. As soon as he sat up, the beeping noise stopped, apparently it read his vitals only when he was laying down on the table.

The bed he was laid on was hard and all white, there were no sheets but there was small pillow. He realized he was wearing a white big piece of cloth that resembled a rectangular poncho or a very strange robe. His body had been cleaned from all the blood and grime of the battle. The only sign of any kind that he had been in a battle, were the red scars that started from his fingertips and ended towards his elbows.

_How much time had passed since the battle?_

Because the walls were bare and there were no windows, he had no idea what time of the day it was.

Peter was startled out of his thoughts when the door opened and closed. A dark-skinned woman entered, she was wearing a high ponytail made of many little braids and a long white dress. She looked very young.

“Oh. You’re awake” She smiled “How are you feeling?”.

“Oh. Hi.” Peter awkwardly waved “I’m Peter”. He cringed at the squeak in his voice and added “I feel okay”.

The girl chuckled and looked at the strange machine, with a movement of her fingers the monitor came to light and she checked something there before turning to Peter again.

“Everything looks good. You were lucky you were brought to Wakanda; any other country would not have been able to treat your injuries as well.”

Peter looked again at his hands and suddenly remembered another set of hands. One of them burned badly. _Very badly_.

He looked up frantically “What about Mr. Stark? Is he okay? Is he alive? Hurt? He was hurt very badly-”.

The girl steadied him on the ~~strange table~~ bed. “He’s alive. He’s being treated by the best Wakanda had to offer in the Royal Palace. Don’t worry.”

Peter let out a shaky breath. Mr. Stark was fine. He was alive. Everything was going to be fine.

“What happened to me?” he asked.

“You were unconscious when you arrived here. You had a broken rib and severe bruising as well as some minor cuts. You collapsed because you went into shock after a sensory overload. All of those were easily resolved, the only bad injury was the burns on your arms. Have you been in contact with radioactive material?”

Peter frowned and his gaze flickered to his left, where both of his old suit laid folded together with the new Iron Spider suit. Realizing they already knew who he was, he decided he had nothing to lose in telling them the truth.

“Er… I was bitten by a radioactive spider when I was 14”.

She smiled kindly and shook her head “Yes, that was explained when we analysed your blood. What I was asking is if during the battle you touched something radioactive.”

“Uhh… maybe? Was Thanos’ gauntlet radioactive? I held it for a bit during the battle…”

“Apparently yes. That’s the reason why snapping would either kill or maim any creature despite of its power. We were able to stop the spreading of the damage with our technology, but some scarring will remain. Now it’s still a bit red and inflamed, but that should go away in the next few days if you keep taking the meds we give you.”

“Oh” Peter looked again at his arms, turning them to see both sides, analysing the scars. They looked like roots, starting from his hands, a tangled mess that slowly untangled towards the elbows. The scars were still red and inflamed but they were not too thick or protruding from the skin. Peter tried to imagine how they would be without the redness and how his arms will look in the future but his mind was one again going blank.

 _Another reason why you’re a freak_. Nothing new.

_How would May react seeing these? Would she be disgusted? Worried?_

Peter’s eyes suddenly widened in realization.

 _May_.


End file.
